The reason political campaigns come up with talking points — and pay focus groups a lot of money to test them — is that it’s effective to repeat things over and over again. Even when people know they’re being fed a manufactured soundbite, and even if people know it’s a lie, it can still work to some extent at a subconscious level.
Advertising slogans work on the same principle. If you constantly bombard people with the same message, eventually they’ll internalize it.
But talking points can backfire, especially when politicians go off-script. They can get themselves into a lot of trouble very quickly. And we’re starting to see that right now with a soundbite you’ve now heard a million times — and which we discussed yesterday — which is the refrain that JD Vance is “weird.” Every Democrat and media outlet has clearly been instructed to repeat this attack…
